Calling Marilyn
Artisan photo booth software powering Calling Marilyn's premium booths across Kuwait.
Calling Marilyn is a premium, artisan photo booth brand in Kuwait founded by studio photographer Salma Alessa, known for bringing a high-end studio aesthetic and strict privacy to automated photo experiences.
No two booths are alike — each is custom-built locally in collaboration with Kuwaiti artisans and creatives to match its environment, from vintage Cadillac convertibles to a Blue Bird school bus converted into a fully functional mobile photo booth.
I maintained the booth software: a Tauri application deployed on NixOS running on Raspberry Pi hardware inside each booth. Reproducible Nix configurations mean any booth can be re-flashed to a known-good state in minutes. Public pop-up booths run at The Assima Mall, 360 Mall, Marina Mall, Khiran Mall, Al Andalus, Al Thuraya Mall, and Salhiya Complex.
The hard requirement was privacy and uptime. Booths do not keep digital keepsakes; the printed strip is the artifact guests take home. Watchdogs, offline-first behavior, and USB/GPIO hardware integration keep cameras and thermal printers reliable at busy mall events.
Privacy-first pipeline
Booths do not store or save digital copies for more than 24 hours. The printed physical strip is the only copy that exists — old-school photo magic on modern hardware.
Tauri desktop app
Rust-backed Tauri shell driving camera capture, live preview, countdown, and print handoff with a fast web UI on top.
NixOS on Raspberry Pi
Declarative, reproducible system configuration flashed onto Raspberry Pi units — every booth boots into an identical, locked-down state.
Hardware integration
Direct integration with cameras, thermal photo-strip printers, and booth control peripherals over USB and GPIO.
Kiosk resilience
Auto-recovery, watchdog restarts, and offline-first operation so booths keep running through network or power blips at events.
Artisan-built booths
Software tuned to run inside one-off custom enclosures — vintage cars, buses, and bespoke cabinets — deployed across public locations in Kuwait.